


Things We Have to Do

by clgfanfic



Category: Riptide (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-01
Updated: 2012-11-01
Packaged: 2017-11-17 12:19:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/551508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clgfanfic/pseuds/clgfanfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene from "Prisoner of War"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things We Have to Do

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published in the zine Fireside Tales #1 and later in Boss And Bodacious: Special Collection #1 under the pen name Lynn Gill.

Cody watched his partner push past the same doors Lt. Quinlin had used a moment before when he’d left the three detectives.  The antagonistic police lieutenant had given the detectives a last glance, then shook his head, amused at some private joke he saw in the situation.  Cody found it anything but humorous.

Something about this particular woman had certainly possessed his dark-haired partner.  Allen couldn't recall another time Nick had abandoned them…

_Abandoned?_

Cody fought the feeling back.  _This is silly_ , he thought.  _I sound jealous, for Christ's sake.  I don't know what's going on, but it's obvious Peggy means a lot to Nick. More than he's letting on_.

Allen ignored the silence that had fallen over the room, and looked over at Murray, wincing as the thin detective shifted his weight with a grimace.

Murray tried to smile, but it was of little comfort to the blond detective, who turned back to studying the ceiling fixtures and trying to ignore the continual throb that bounced from his elbow to thumb.

"Huh, Cody?"

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong with Nick?  I mean, he didn't seem that, well, _attached_ to Peggy.  I mean I know they’re dating, but . . . Do you know what I'm trying to say?"

"Yeah, I do, Murray, but I don't know what's going on.  I never thought Nick would abandon us like that, that's for sure."

Murray was startled by the undertone of anger that seeped out in the statement.  "Gee, Cody, I wouldn't say Nick abandoned us.  I mean, Diamond was hurt and the other two were gone, and he did get the guy who stabbed you.  He would've stopped him, too, you know, but he was fighting with Diamond, and I certainly wasn't any help–"

"Okay, Boz, okay.  I'm sorry, it was a stupid thing to say.  I'm just feeling…  I don't know, I guess I'm just worried about him."

"Me, too."

 

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

 

Nick found himself back in the Lexington Hotel district, looking for Peggy with no success.  As dawn edged along the dirty, cluttered street now nearly abandoned, he hailed a cab and headed back to the _Riptide_.  The light was on in the main salon, which meant Cody and Murray had waited up for him, or, more likely, were unable to sleep due to their injuries.

Nick winced.  The memory of the pair lying in the treatment room still twisted his stomach and made it hard to breathe.  _I never should've left them there alone_ , he chided himself.  _I should've stayed at the hospital afterwards.  Damn it, why didn't I stay with them instead of running off after they were hurt!  I know what I should do!_

"Yeah," he growled out loud, "and I oughtta grow wings and fly."

_Why is Peggy getting to me like this?_

He forced himself aboard the boat and proceeded forward for the confrontation he knew was imminent.  Entering the main salon, Nick avoided eye contact with the two detectives, each propped up on the cushioned benches.  Silently he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"You guys going to be all right?"

"Sure, we'll be fine," Murray said.  "Like I said, I really think this is a volleyball injury."

Nick smiled thinly.  "I'm really sorry about what happened.  I didn't expect anything like this, you know?  I sure as hell didn't want you two in the middle of something where you'd get hurt."

"What _is_ going on?" Cody asked.

"I wish to God I knew.  Peggy's…  She's–  She's a good person.  None of this makes any sense."

"I didn't mean, Peggy, Nick," Cody said quietly.  "I meant you.  What's going on with you?"

"Me?"

Murray watched the storm rising in the dark-haired detective's eyes.  Cody was treading on more dangerous ground than he suspected.  "You don't seem yourself, that's all," he added, hoping to damp down the explosion.

Ryder took his mug and sat down on the stairs leading to the wheelhouse.  "Look, I said I was sorry.  What more do you guys want?"

"We just want to help," Cody said.

"Well, you can't, okay?  This is something I have to do.  _Alone_."

"No, damn it, that's _not_ okay," the blond snapped.  "I don't know what the hell this is all about.  But it's more than Peggy.  You're getting in over your head, in more ways than one, I think."

"And how would you know, man?  Peggy saw some soldier get killed, she slipped off the deep end, and the next thing I know, she's downtown where a pimp's draggin' her into a caddie.  And did you see her face?  She looked like she was lost in the _Twilight Zone_!  I've gotta try and find her."

"We know you want to help, but…" the thin detective trailed off.  "Are you in love with her?"

"No," Nick said, immediately adding. "I don't know.  Maybe, but that's not the point!"

"What is, then?" Cody inserted.  "I can understand your wanting to help her; we all do.  But, damn it, Nick, Murray and I needed you, too, and you left us dangling on the line!"

The words stung, reinforcing the guilt already built up in the detective.  "I had to," was all he could find to say in his own defense.

"Had to?" Murray probed.

Ryder looked to the agency's computer expert for support, but he was obviously as upset as Cody.  "I can't explain it, but there's something inside me that won't let me turn my back on this."

"Then let us help, too.  Don't shut us out, Nick."

"Look, I would if I knew what that meant.  I'd be a whole lot happier if you'd just back off and let me take care of this, alone."

"I might be willing to do that, if I knew what the hell was going on," Cody said.  "You're not responsible for Peggy going off the deep end, you know."

Nick sighed heavily.  The prickling memory he had held back since he saw Peggy's expression filtered in through the anger and frustration.  "Okay, maybe I feel more responsible than I should, but…"  The dark-haired detective paused to rub his eyes and the back of his neck, trying to ease the memory out.  "There was this guy in my unit, a door gunner, Mickey.  He came on board right after we'd lost a lot of guys, so nobody was letting themselves get too close to the newbys.  Mickey was green; God, was he green – right off a front porch in Salt Lake City.  He needed to belong, you know?  But we just couldn't give it to him.

"He was assigned to my ship for his first flight.  We went up the next morning to pick up a squad coming out of the bush.  When we got there we found them pined down.  We backed off, waited for it to cool down, then dropped in.  The VC were waiting for that.  There must have been a couple of squads that opened up on us.  The grunts were running toward us.  Most of them went down.  We had to pull out or eat it right there.

"Mickey and the gunners on the other slicks were firing into the tree line, tying to buy some time while the guys regrouped on the ground.  A couple of us dropped in again while the others flew cover.  My co-pilot was hit in the neck and I took a graze along the leg.  The chopper dipped.  Mickey lost the gun.

"When we got close the guys started diving on board, but there were too many.  Mickey'd jumped out to help get two of the wounded on, but the others were pressing.  He kept them back until the shooting started again.  Green Mickey, stupid green Mickey was on the ground.  I had to pull out.  I had to leave those men there or lose the whole group."

Cody and Murray stared into their coffee cups, neither willing to meet the pain shining in Nick's unshed tears.

"He was killed?" Cody whispered.

"No," Nick said, his voice softened by the distant memories.  "They made it into the bush, played tag with the VC for three days and three nights before we could get in and get them out."  He stopped and took a couple of sips of cold coffee. "I hadn't really put it together until just now, but the look on Peggy's face was the same as the one on Mickey's when he came back.

"Oh, the doctor's checked him over, said he was fine and sent him back to the unit.  He went up for the second time the day after we pulled him out."

"And?" Murray asked when the dark-haired detective's voice caught.

"He jumped, at twenty-five hundred feet."

"Jesus," Cody breathed.

"I don't want anything like that to happen to Peggy, that's all.  I don't know what’s wrong with her, but I know that look and I'm scared.  I knew Micky wasn't ready, but there wasn't a damn thing I could do.  Maybe I can help Peggy, maybe not.  But it's something I have to do."

Cody nodded.  "We still want to help.  Diamond wasn't kidding when he said he'd be looking for you.  We can cover more ground together."

Nick rose and sat the coffee cup down next to the empty pot.  "I appreciate it, Cody, I really do and I'll be careful, but, please, I want to do this alone."

He turned and plodded up the stairs to the wheelhouse.  The two remaining detectives listened as Nick left the _Riptide_.

"What do we do?" Murray asked.

Cody sighed.  "I understand what he wants to do, but I can't just leave him out there, alone.  Come on…"


End file.
